The new AEO Board and its sister communities, SocialMedia.org and SocialMedia.org Health, come together under the Digital Marketing & Communications Council to help leaders navigate the next era of digital marketing.

TORONTO, Sept. 22, 2026 /PRNewswire/ — The AEO playbook is still being written, and its downstream impact on the digital landscape is only beginning to take shape.

To help enterprise marketing leaders navigate one of the most consequential shifts in digital visibility in years, Assemble today announced the launch of the Digital Marketing & Communications Council (DMCC), bringing together its new AEO Board with its SocialMedia.org and SocialMedia.org Health Boards.

“No company has the full playbook for this yet,” said Aaron Kissel, CEO of Assemble. “The organizations that get ahead won’t be the ones with the most resources. They’ll be the ones learning fastest from each other. That’s why we built the DMCC: a real-time, trusted way to compare notes on the decisions everyone is being forced to make.”

The combined community includes 394 member companies and 1,750 individual members, representing more than half of the Fortune 500 and creating a powerful peer network for leaders responsible for how their organizations show up, communicate, and grow in an increasingly AI-driven world.

A Changing Digital Ecosystem

As AI-powered search and large language models reshape how customers discover brands, build trust, and make purchasing decisions, digital marketing leaders are navigating unfamiliar territory without an established roadmap.

Within Assemble’s own community, members are reporting a staggering 40% to 60% decline in traffic, according to DMCC Membership Director Will White, and nearly two-thirds call operationalizing AEO a top near-term challenge.

But the questions extend well beyond traffic. Leaders are asking: What is the impact on funnel conversion and revenue? Are we showing up the right way in AI results? How should we organize, define roles, and set goals? And how should media spend change as discovery changes? The DMCC will help leaders navigate these questions and more.

Announcing the Launch at NAMLS

From September 28–30, 2026, leaders across Digital Marketing, AEO, Social Media, Brand, Communications, Customer Experience, Growth, and Digital Strategy will come together at Assemble’s North American Marketing Leadership Summit (NAMLS) to compare strategies and exchange emerging practices.

In his mainstage address, Assemble CEO Aaron Kissel will announce the launch of the new council and invite leaders from across the profession to join.

The 2026 speaker lineup includes senior marketing leaders from Amazon, PepsiCo, SAP, FIFA World Cup 2026, Spotify, Unilever, KPMG, AT&T, Bayer, State Farm, Lockheed Martin, Bank of America, Synchrony, LA28 Olympic & Paralympic Games, Dominion Energy, and Goodwill Industries International, among others.

About Assemble

Assemble is a peer intelligence company that helps senior business leaders make faster, more confident decisions through professionally facilitated communities, industry-specific summits, and curated content, delivering the real-time, peer-driven insights traditional information sources no longer reliably do. Assemble delivers impact on three levels: companies make big calls with more certainty, teams move priority work forward faster, and individual members lead with confidence and vetted strategy.

Assemble currently serves more than 1,600 companies across finance, human capital, marketing, technology, supply chain, and manufacturing. Learn more at www.theassemble.com.

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SOURCE Assemble